Tuesday, September 30, 2014

We all have a cultural identity that is
formed by family, community, country, and the world in which we live. Today, selfies
aid in constructing identity by providing a new mode and venue for negotiating
values, perceptions, and assertions. I present myself and my Latino identity
via my selfies. I act both as artist and subject, allowing complete control of
how my image is portrayed to the public. However, by removing my self-portraits
from social media context to the gallery wall of the art world, I add
permanence. Furthermore, my selfies draw on memory to construct identity, in
that they record events, people, and places that are special to me. I am
constantly taking self-portraits with my smart phone, alone or with my husband
and my son, to instantly share on social media and remain connected with family
and friends in the U.S. and in Puerto Rico.The painted portraits intend to capture the interaction between my life
here in Massachusetts and my bond to Puerto Rico, my birthplace.

The act of exploring the meaning and
location of borders, boundaries, and zones of transitions is what theorist Homi
Bhaba names as “In-betweeness” (Robertson, p178). My series #Inbetween2worldsaims to document the now easy transition between two places and how I
have overcome displacement. Reaching for a deeper understanding of self
directly correlates to the construction of my identity. As I pose for the selfie
with my grandmother, I intend to take with me a memento and share it on
Facebook. As I paint our self-portrait, I further celebrate, process, and savor
that moment.In my selfie portrait with
my son we playfully pose in our winter attire, celebrating a sunny cold day to
share with family back in Puerto
Rico. In
another selfie, I pose with my parka or with the exotic flower of the
“Flamboyan” or Royal Poinciana tree. It may not be as obvious for my viewer to
determine where I am, either here or there, but my desire is to allow the
viewer to contemplate on who I am, what I value, and how I identify. Every
portrait in this series evaluates, reevaluates, examines, and reexamines my
personal experience.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

For
my Art enthusiast. Do you want to be a part of my Thesis Art project?
Send me your Selfie.

Project completed

I recognize that the selfie trend is not
just about narcissism or need for validation; I also see it as a platform for
addressing important issues. Social media provides a forum for anyone to create
awareness and express dislikes on any issues. For instance, I came across the
hashtag, #WhatLatinosLookLike, which was
provoked by the theory that Hispanics are identifying as white in larger
numbers as part of a process of racial assimilation resembling that of Italian
or Irish descendants: a theory that both the New York Times and Slate addressed
in June 2014 (Benedetti, Huff Post). These
articles may aim to point at the possibility of an evolving self-identity or
benefit associated with being identified with a specific group.#WhatLatinosLookLike
prompts the viewer to reflect on self-identity while making visible that
Latinos are diverse in skin color. In order to engage in this issue, I
interacted with strangers and responded to their selfies on Twitter. I take
pride in identifying as Latina; therefore I joined strangers on Twitter
to take part in displaying the diversity within Latinos.

While painting the portraits of fifteen
of the participants, some of whom identified as Mexican-Greek, Chicano
Afro-Cuban, Puerto Rican-Mexican-Polish to Cuban-Ecuadorian, I was able to slow
down and think about these individuals in the process of undoing stereotypes
and showcasing diversity. I sifted through hundreds of selfies posted on Twitter,
and selected ones that I felt displayed diversity, in terms of age, ethnicity,
skin tone, profession, or religious preference. As shown above, on the left the subject tagged his images as Argentine, Porteño, with Jewish, Ukrainian and
Polish roots; while subject on the right tagged his as AfroRican, having African
and Puerto Rican roots. I painted portraits from these appropriated selfies as
a means of making connections in our shared identity. My series #WhatLatinosLookLike allowed me to demonstrate
diversity within the Latino community and casually attempt to describe the
complexity within it. Painting from images that are inherently informal and
impermanent, I created an archive: my own record of these images that became more
permanent than in digital form on social media networks.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

My experience with displacement gave way to the
creation of the #Murrieta. In this “selfie
conversation” I address the immigration crisis in this country, and more
specifically reference the events that took place in California this summer. On July 1, 2014 Murrieta became a flashpoint in the immigration
crisis when protestors blocked the road to prevent three buses transporting 140
migrant woman and children from entering the town (Fieldstadt, NBCNews.com). Instagram
and Twitter users posted selfies while observing the people protest and supporting
the transfer by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Angered by what was taking
place, and feeling empathetic to those women and children whom must have been
terrified, I selected images from the protest. Once again, I found selfies that
move beyond narcissistic tendencies and showed a political stance to create
change. The series #MuerrietaProtest
sheds light not only on the event that occurred on July 2014, but also the
participation of people who voiced their opinion in a greater sense. In Figure
11 (above), the participants of the self-portraits hold a sign near their faces
making visible identifying with its message. Even though we cannot read the
sign, it is evident that they are participating and taking action in a protest.
These images have more contextual clues about the issues of identity and
activism than the series #Iamhere or
#WhatLatinosLookLike.